New Leica M Lenses and Accessories

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Sean Reid

Guest
For reasons I can't go into, I'd like to gather feedback from people who plan to purchase the Digital M and/or future M lenses or products over, let's say, the next year or two. So this is a question for curent/future film M and(future) digital M photographers. I can only use responses that come in today for this immediate project and your thoughts, collectively, certainly will be heard by Leica.

Please keep this thread directly on topic. We know that Leica M lenses and cameras are expensive so, for this thread, I'd like to hear specifically from photographers who feel that they truly would spend the money needed to purchase the products they are suggesting. The more realistic the suggestions, the more useful they will be be. If you have ideas, please reply today.

So the question is: What new lenses and M accessories do you think Leica should produce? In answering this, please try to think in terms of products that you think would have wide and strong appeal.

Thanks,

Sean
 
For a didigital M camera with a crop factor, a 15mm 2.8 Asph would be nice. The price should be kept in line with the equiv Zeiss. however it should offer full focus capabilities.

An external viewfinder for long lenses! I hate looking through the extra small frame lines in my camera.
 
New lenses for this camera should correspond to the standard focal lengths that we are used to - 21, 28, 35, 50, etc.. Of course the camera should have internal framelines, without the need for too many auxiliary finders. It would be great if when mounting a lens, only the frameline that required is brought into view. And yes, it should be able to use lenses that we already have!
 
Sean: I would like to see a "minifier," kind of like the 1.25x magnifier in reverse. It should have *very* good eye relief so most glasses wearers could see the 28 and 35mm frames in a .72x Leica when mounted. I would find such a device far more useful than a .58x body.(Note: First reports re. the Japanese minifier that just came on the market have said that it was not useful for glasses wearers--not enough eye relief. So it's not the idea that's wrong, it's the implementation of that particular model).

Anything that could be done to improve eye relief on the digital M, or any M for that matter, would be welcome.

I would like to see Leica make a concerted effort to sell the digital M to photographers, not collectors and the Hermes accessories crowd. This may mean lowering the price some to sell more cameras. I know this goes against the grain for Leica, but with a possible Zeiss/Cosina digital on the horizon, and a funky but workable R-D1(s) already out there, Leica needs to realize that the digital market is not the same as the film camera market. You can't sell a 75-year lifespan over which to amotize the initial price. Not in the digital market where things advance so quickly.

If Leica made a B&W-only digital M, I would *very* seriously consider it. It has a potential for significantly higher resolution and no Bayer-pattern artifact issues, not to mention higher sensitivity.

--Peter
 
Sean Reid said:
Please keep this thread directly on topic. We know that Leica M lenses and cameras are expensive so, for this thread, I'd like to hear specifically from photographers who feel that they truly would spend the money needed to purchase the products they are suggesting. The more realistic the suggestions, the more useful they will be be. If you have ideas, please reply today.
Click to expand...

It might take me a few years to accumulate the money, but I'd definitely be interested in buying the following types of items. Almost all the photography I do now is digital, and I vastly prefer to use an RF camera over an SLR, so the following outfit would make sense to me if I could count on it having a sufficiently long useful life (at least 5 and ideally closer to 10 years):

-- A digital camera body with framelines covering the equivalents of 35mm focal lengths 28mm, 40/50mm, and 75/85/90mm. In all honesty, that's about all I ever need. The other key feature for me would be a spot meter, or at least a meter with coverage corresponding to a definite marked area in the viewfinder. I'd like this to work in conjunction with aperture-priority auto exposure and AEL. I'd also want motorized shutter winding, either built-in or via an optional add-on.

-- I'd want wide-aperture, high-performance lenses in the focal lengths corresponding to the above (regardless of what actual focal lengths are needed to reproduce these fields of view on the sensor.) Again, this is about all the lenses I ever use. Again, nothing too drastic here.

-- I'd love to see a wireless offload capability. This would be a somewhat new concept. The idea would be that you'd wear a device somewhat like an Epson P2000 on your belt or carry it in your camera bag, and the camera would use Bluetooth or similar technology to dump raw files onto it during periods between shots. The camera would probably need a big buffer (or use an onboard memory card as a buffer) to provide image storage during intensive bursts of shooting, since the throughput of the Bluetooth device would be limited -- but it could "catch up" during periods between shots. The reason I want this device is that swapping memory cards and dumping them into my P2000 is the biggest break in the natural "flow" of shooting with my R-D 1; the ideal of the "rangefinder aesthetic" is that you can wander freely using the camera as an extension of your eye, and eliminating the need to juggle cards would be a tremendous extension of this.

Sorry if you were looking for suggestions of a more gee-whiz nature. But the way I look at it, one of the strengths of the M-type camera is that the overall concept is pretty much already fully perfected; all I really want is to have that concept extended as seamlessly as possible into the digital realm.
 
Jorge Torralba said:
For a didigital M camera with a crop factor, a 15mm 2.8 Asph would be nice. The price should be kept in line with the equiv Zeiss. however it should offer full focus capabilities.

An external viewfinder for long lenses! I hate looking through the extra small frame lines in my camera.
Click to expand...

Is the crop factor of the Digital-M the same as for the Epson? Bear in mind the lens they design might be crop factor equivelants of the existing lenses.
 
I will buy de digital M as soon as it hits the shelfs ..... but do not feel any need for a new Leica lens at all. There is plenty to choose already. In fact i plan to sell a couple of lenses as soon as i know the performance of my lenses on the digital M.
I just hope there will be framelines for a 21m (=28mm with crop) ... otherwise my 21mm (Zeiss) is one of the lenses to sell ... external finders do not work for me!
The same with my 75mm lux ... if focus is as unreliable as with the R-D1 .. i will sell!
If the 21mm has to go because of lacking framelines i will consider a 28 Elmarit.
There will be no substitution for the 75 lux ..... if it has to go.

In fact 35 & 50 mm (in different flavours: new and old designs) are the focal length i use 99.9% of the time. This will not change with the digital M.

Han
 
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I am interested in the digital M. I would use a current 35mm as my normal and I would like another one that would correspond to the equivalent of the current 35mm.
 
I would seriously consider looking at buying a Digital M if it had built in, auto selected, parallax corrected frame lines for the moderate 35mm equvialent wide angle lenes to normal that I favour.

If the factor is 1.3x, then I need 21mm (28 on 35), 28mm (36.4 on 35, although a new 27mm f2.0 lens, 35mm equivalent would be even better) and 40mm (52mm on 35). Further (longer focal lengths) would be a bonus as long as including these did not compromise the ones above. Like Peter I want good eye relief to be able to see the whole of these frames clearly when wearing glasses.

A new 21mm f2.0 lens to give a fast 28mm on 35 equivalent.

Basically I want the best of my Leica M4 & my R-D1 with a even better viewfinder.
 
I will be buying the digital M when it comes out. One thing that I want is the unit be as classic Leica as possible. Technology interfaces (i.e. Menues) should be kept to a minimum in favor of analog style controls. If Leica were to see fit to have an all Black and White sensor then that would be a definite purchase for me. As many people that have stated the same I do not see how Leica can ignore that.
 
Leica should not underestimate the potential interest in this camera, if done right. I know a lot of photojournalists here in New York who are DYING for a camera like this.

They need to focus on the advantages that rangefinders have over digital doggie-doo cameras. Namely, compact size and high-speed lenses. NOT ONE small digital camera (that I'm aware of) out there currently has an aperature of 1.4 or rarely even 2.0.

I would love to see a new collapsible 50mm f 2.0 Summicron in digital format. What other digital camera has something like that?

The LCD interface must be simple and intuitive.

The shutter must be as silent as possible.

I am not sure if this is possible, but if the LCD screen allows for "live view", the Leica M camera could overcome one of its oldest shortcomings: the ability to close-focus and have macro capabilities. Imagine if you could , in addition to using the rangfinder, focus closer than the usual .7 meters using the LCD screen. The camera could be more versatile. Maybe new lenses could focus closer than this (not sure if that's possible.)
 
I will get one eventually, aside from the above considerations I would like the sensor to perform well under low-light conditions, (meaning the ability to choose ISO 3200 with low noise performance without having to resort to software to reduce it). The current Panasonic/Leica point and shoots produce horrible noise above ISO 200 and unusable at 800-1600.

Todd


Todd
 
I am also waiting for the digital M to arrive.
I would like it to be as close to a film M as possible in size, maybe a little thicker is not a problem.
However,unlike Glenn, I think it should definitely be a full colour sensor. You can always convert to black and white afterwards, or have both options as a choice, black and white body or full colour, for the same price of course.
 
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I'm probably stupid enough to buy one :(

I'd go for crop adjusted framelines for 28, 35, 50, 75 & 90. I'd suggest a external D finder for a 21. That would be just fine. I guess the wide boys might like a reasonably fast 15mm with D finder also. I don't think it needs to be THAT fast if we get good noise handling to ISO 1600 at least.

Regards

Gid
 
Sean - Thanks for doing this.

I agree with a number of statements made so far. I think that the quality and usability of the viewfinder/rangefinder will be the most important feature. I would emphasize these wants/needs:

* A bright, relatively uncluttered viewfinder capable of framing lenses as wide as at least 21mm.

* New, compact, fast, dedicated wide-angle lenses (ex: 15/2.8 21/2.0 27/1.4) that will approximate the current wide M performance and field of view.

* Capable of shooting at 1600 or 3200 ISO with noise levels comparable to the best Canon sensors.

If they do this, and the camera is equivalent in quality to the MP, then it will be EXTREMELY DIFFICULT for me to resist buying one. It would probably be about a year after release, but I can't imagine not being succumbed to the lure of such a camera.

Robert
 
This perhaps runs against the grain of folks who want wides; The VF/RF of any digi-M should have the base-length and magnification to be able to handle Leica's fast glass. I find it a challenge to focus the 75/1.4, 50/1 90/2 reliably on the RD-1. I do not have any specific suggestions for new lenses, but would encourage them to stay away from digital-only lenses that aren't backwards-compatible with older M cameras.

I will probably buy one when they are available.

A BW only mode would do me. . . don't need a dedicated camera. (I'll be shooting RAW anyway).
 
Now, assuming it does have a viewfinder (recent mockups have) which to be honest would be a make or break for me and not some noddy 'in focus' indicator from the LCD screen I'd consider it. It would take me an age to save up though. Given that the pixel race has slowed somewhat and the life of the digital M should be a long one. Hopefully factory upgradeable as improvements should be available when changes happen. I'd need to save for a fast 28 as well though.
 
i think the B&W sensor as an option would be great. i would also love to see some means of upgrading as technology does without buying a new camera (ie: some sort of digital "back"...or the leica-fitting equivalent).
 
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